A close up of a young girl is used as the very first shot of the actual film. From this shot alone, we can see many things and also find out a lot about the girl who we are watching.
The girl is wearing glasses, which represents or shows vulnerability, because of the connotation that people who wear glasses rely on glasses to have good vision. Take the glasses away and someone has their vision impaired. Although we only see her eyes and nose, we can also see in the reflection of her glasses a TV show, and from this we can see that she is watching very closely and feels strongly about the program she is watching. The second shot straight after is also a close up, but this time it is a close up of the TV she is watching. This close up is different however as it shows the whole of the woman’s face and lets the audience see her reaction to her winning the ‘Miss America’ award.
With these two shots together, we can already see that the girl watching the program, is inspired or envious of this woman, and wants to be like her or in her situation. To take this point further, later on in the extract, the girl pauses and re winds the video, to watch it again. As well as this, the girl imitates the reaction of the woman, as if it was her that had just received the award. All of these shots put together creates a clear idea that the girl truly wants to be ‘Miss America’, and as she imitates the reaction of the woman before the woman does it herself, show that she has seen this clip more than once before. As this is a young girl, her deep interest is rather unexpected.
A low angle is used as the girl is re-winding the clip. This is a rather deceptive shot as it makes the girl look really tall or big. This is deceptive as we know that she is just a small girl by the look on her face and also by the closed that she is wearing. This could possibly represent her ambitions being big in size, rather than her actual body. A mid shot us used but from the side to firstly show her actual body size, as she is the same height as the TV showing that she is actually in fact a little girl, but also so that we can see more of her and get a better feel of her character and personality.
After seeing the girl watching the TV, we go to a man giving an inspirational speech, about being whop you want to be and following your dreams. This is used to let the audience know that this film is going to be about the girl trying to be ‘Miss America’ by following her dreams, and also maybe some other characters, but we can see by these two clips put together that the rest of the film will be about following your dreams. He talks about the ‘9-Step refuse to lose’ program that has a lot of emphasis put on it. This could be possible foreshadowing for later on in the film, and could be possibly what the character(s) use as their guideline throughout the film. This has had emphasis put on it by using a mid shot and also by the use of dialogue. The words ‘9-Step refuse to lose program’ were spoken much loader and much more clear than anything else.
Sound
Overall
I analysed the opening of this film because I think it is a clever way of leaving the audience a little unsure what they are watching. This film is a comedy but it creates a distinct atmosphere in the first two minutes. This is achieved by throwing the audience right into the middle of the action and not beginning with a series of establishing shots. I think this is an effective technique for making the audience pay attention and try to work out what is happening.
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